


Stay Lost On Our Way Home

by VerboseWordsmith



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/F, Future Fic, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 00:38:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6031783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerboseWordsmith/pseuds/VerboseWordsmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winry's pretty sure the military needs to come up with a policy for civilian contractors. Or at least, some kind of policy for paying her, because as usual she's being called in to save Ed's butt. This time, it's a broken down car and Ed's stranded with Mustang and Havoc.</p>
<p>Of course, it's Winry and Riza to the rescue. Again. It's a long drive from Central City to the middle of nowhere and then back again; it looks like Winry's going to get a life-changing road trip since she and Riza have to pass the time somehow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay Lost On Our Way Home

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Military and Country prompt for FMA Femslash Week.
> 
> As with everything I do with this fandom, this wouldn't exist without [Xyriath](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Xyriath/pseuds/Xyriath) being awesome. Thank you so much for the crazy fast lightning beta!

Winry met Riza Hawkeye when she was almost twelve. She thought Riza was one of the prettiest ladies she'd ever met and that Riza was definitely the _coolest_ lady she knew, even if she was a dog of the military. Years later, and Hawkeye is still one of the prettiest women Winry's had the pleasure of meeting and she's probably the coolest person Winry knows. Winry likes to think they get along pretty well, which is handy since they've been stuck in car together for hours.

Ed had missed his train back to Central (Winry was pretty sure that's because he'd been sent to organize some alchemist's library and you just don't let an Elric near a pile of alchemy books if you want them to do anything useful on a deadline), so Major General Mustang and Captain Havoc had requisitioned a car and went after him.

Apparently, after they had picked Ed and his books up, the car's motor blew up five miles out of town, and the closest mechanic was about forty miles further out and refused to do work for the military. It was pure luck that Winry was in town to tune up Ed's automail when Hawkeye got the phone call. Winry had gotten a ten minute warning that her services were being commandeered for a rescue mission and then Hawkeye was pulling up outside Ed and Al's building.

"I'm going to start charging for hazard pay," Winry says, recrossing her legs and hoping they'll stop soon. Her butt is going a little numb from sitting in a car for nearly four hours, and she had run out of comfortable ways to sit two and a half hours ago.

"You won't get it," Riza replies, and she briefly glances over at Winry before returning her gaze to the empty road ahead of them. "We've tried to get hazard pay for dealing with the Major General's...dramatics, but no luck. Falman has an intriguing potential loophole; between the General and Edward, we might have a decent case for claiming that we work in combat conditions and might be able to leverage some form of combat pay."

"Yeah, but I'm a civilian freelancer," Winry says cheerfully. "So I don't have to deal with red tape, I just have to write up a new contract for Ed to sign and presto! Hazard pay. He should be able to pass most of the cost over to the military, 'cause his contract says they'll cover his healthcare including pre-existing conditions, so."

"Please don't," Riza says and sounds pained. Winry glances over and Riza's wincing. "All that would do is create more paperwork Edward will refuse to look at and ultimately, I'd have to handle it and my job is complicated enough."

"Well, the boys are going to owe me big then," Winry says. "Which might actually be more beneficial in the long run. Some extra cenz would be nice, but having Ed and Mustang owe me a giant favor in the future might be worth more."

"Don't forget Havoc," Riza adds. "People always underestimate him; he's a good man to have in your debt, and you never know when you're going to need a getaway driver."

"There's a story there."

"Several," Riza says with a laugh. "I'll have to introduce you to my friend Rebecca. You'll understand why I have so many stories that end with us barely escaping trouble."

"You work for Mustang," Winry says. "I honestly wonder when you're not barely escaping trouble."

"That's why we want hazard pay," Riza says, and Winry's still watching her, so she catches Riza's tiny grin. Winry laughs and, for a moment, wishes she could drive with Riza forever. Then her lower back twinges, reminding Winry that no matter how great the company is, long car rides suck.

***

Finally, finally! they find Ed and his comrades in mechanical incompetence. Winry whistles once she sees the damage.

"What the hell did you people do to this poor car?"

"Nothing!" Havoc proclaims from the other side of the road where Riza parked. "Nothing at all, I just drove, and then it started making a funny rattling sound after we picked up the boss and then, boom! I swear, none of us touched it, _we didn't do this_."

"Can you fix it?" Mustang asks pathetically.

"Yeah, if one of you can transmute the parts for me. Jeez, I didn't think you meant that the engine literally blew up." Winry shakes her head. She's never seen a car look quite this sad under the hood. Actually—

"Hey, where'd you get this thing from?"

"Motor pool, why?" Mustang asks, immediately suspicious. Winry wants to tease him about paranoia, but she's not _new_. She had lost count of the assassination attempts years ago; Winry's close enough to Mustang's inner circle that she knows how to recognize when things don't add up or are just a little too convenient or coincidental. Hell, she's close enough that Mr. Hughes pulled her aside last year to discuss security precautions and a discreet bodyguard whenever she's in Cental for more than a day or two.

"Engines don't usually blow up like this," Winry says bluntly. "And one of the few things the military does right is maintenance on their vehicles, so this shouldn't have happened. Is there anything important coming up you can't miss?"

"No, there's nothing immediately pressing on his agenda for a few days," Riza says, crossing her arms and frowning. Winry's reasonably fluent in Riza; she's borderline pissed about this and probably as uneasy about the situation as the rest of them.

"Damn," Winry says, and starts twisting her ponytail into a bun to make sure it stays out of the engine. "I was really hoping this was just to stall you. My next guess is that this was another assassination attempt, though I'm not sure if the car was supposed to blow up with you in it or if you were supposed to break down further away from civilization so someone someone could kill you."

"Wonderful," Mustang says dryly. "Just what this week needed, another assassin."

"Hey, at least it means you're doing something right," Ed says. "So, gearhead, what do you need transmuted?"

Winry hands him a blackened piece of metal. "Start with this, get rid of the charring and dents. I'll draw you diagrams of what the other stuff is supposed to look like. Doesn't need to be perfect, we just need to get everyone back to Central safely."

***

With Ed and Mustang's help, Winry's able to rebuild the car's engine surprisingly quickly. It's a rough job: they have to raid both cars for materials and send Havoc into town for some raw materials, a few parts that just don't _exist_ anymore, and a quick meal, but about two hours after sunset they're all on the road again.

Mustang tries to wheedle his way into riding with Winry and Riza, but Winry shoots him down. There honestly isn't enough space in the backseat between Winry's tools, Riza's weapons cache, and the alchemy stuff Ed had fobbed off on them when he realized they had one less person and no luggage in the trunk.

Besides, Havoc is the one who had practically invented defensive (and offensive) driving; Mustang would be safer behind Havoc's wheel and with Riza escorting them.

Winry is just pleased she doesn't have to listen to Riza and Mustang bicker for nearly six hours.

***

Most of Amestris' landscape is pretty boring to watch speeding past; it's even more boring at night. Winry lasts about twenty tense minutes before she gets tired of looking at shadow-darkened trees and the low-key wariness they've all been feeling since she had announced that this was probably another assassination attempt. There isn't anything they can do about the situation until they get back to Central, and Winry isn't going to spend most of the night silently trading off driving shifts.

"Truth or dare?" Winry asks Riza.

"What?" Riza asks distractedly.

"Truth," Winry repeats. "Or dare, whichever. Pick one."

"Winry, we're in a car, we can't perform any dares."

"Good point, I didn't think that one through. Two truths and a lie, then?"

"Do I want to know what two truths and a lie is?" Riza asks, and Winry can hear a faint hint of amusement in her voice. Excellent, Winry's done her job then, tension broken. Now to keep Riza talking so they don't fall asleep and crash.

"Well, it's pretty self-explanatory? We each tell two truths and a lie and the other has to guess which one's the lie. I'll start! My favorite color is purple, I've been arrested twice, and I know how to ride a horse."

"There's no way your favorite color is purple," Riza says quickly and decisively.

"Nope, that one's true," Winry says cheerfully. "Want to try again?"

"I find it hard to believe that you don't know how to ride a horse, growing up in the country like that, but I _know_ you've been arrested before."

"Wrong again!" Winry says. Riza makes an annoyed huffing noise and Winry grins.

"How am I wrong?" Riza asks and takes her eyes off the road long enough to give Winry a confused look. "I was the person you called when you were arrested in Greenfield for disorderly conduct!"

"Hey, I still say getting excited over automail isn't disorderly conduct!"

"You ran into a shop shrieking, then ran out waving an arm that was for sale and, notably, you did not actually buy. You're lucky you were just charged with disorderly conduct. There's a strong case there for shoplifting."

"Well," Winry says defensively, "it's not like I took it very far. And I returned it! I just wanted to show Paninya how they integrated a grappling hook into it."

"You said the game was two truths and a lie and I have to guess the lie, but you cheated with three truths!"

"No, see, I've only been arrested _once_ ," Winry says. "Let me guess, you were thinking of the thing with Briggs and that mining town?"

"Yes? That whole incident was a mess and so many charges were brought up and dropped, I felt like I could barely keep up with everything."

Winry snorts indelicately (not that there really was a way to snort delicately). "Yeah, try living through that and not having a clue what was _actually_ going on for days and days. I wasn't charged with anything, though. I mean, I've been threatened with arrest a couple times, but I've only landed in jail the one time. Thank you again for bailing me out. It meant a lot to me."

"Well," Riza says dryly, "it's not like you could call on Edward or, really, most of your friends. Or you grandmother in a situation like that. Most of them would destroy the jail to free you or slip you a metal file so you could break out."

"Do you think using a metal file as a lock pick or an improvised knife would be a better solution? Uh, hypothetically."

Riza starts to laugh and Winry's confused; she hadn't, exactly, made a joke there.

"Sorry, it's just that I know someone's who done both. Rebecca says that a lock pick is generally faster, but taking someone hostage by holding a file to someone's neck is more fun. I don't have the relevant experience here, but my suggestion would be to take someone hostage unless you're very good at stealth and, uh, hot wiring cars. And shooting from moving vehicles."

"I don't know if I want to meet Rebecca or run away from her," Winry says contemplatively.

"You'd like her a lot," Riza tells her. "I'll have to introduce you. Now, I believe it's my turn. I'm reasonably fluent in Cretan, I had awful hand-eye coordination as a child, and I don't know how to dance anything except for a terrible waltz."

Winry considers what she knows about Riza's life; then she considers what she knows about Riza's strategizing. "I'm going to call shenanigans on the Cretan. The hand-eye coordination is too obvious and I've listened to you complain about formal society crap before."

"That could just be because I hate dressing up," Riza says and Winry's pretty sure she catches a small smile in the dim light.

"Was I right or not?"

"I've always been very coordinated," Riza tells her. "It's part of why I did so well at the academy and got recommended for the accelerated officer course; I had sniper and black ops potential and, at the time, Creta was almost as much of a hotspot as Ishval. It didn't leave much time for a social life, though. Or dance lessons."

Winry's silent for a moment or two. She's always known Riza is a soldier, of course. She's even seen Riza fight before, but there's knowing and then there's _knowing_. Killing under orders is comprehensible. Winry's lived in a military state her entire life; she knows what it's like to deal with orders and hierarchy. But there is a difference between joining the military to help people or support a family and having to do horrible things under orders and being specially trained to do even more horrible things that much more effectively. One of those is a much more active decision; all soldiers have blood on their hands, but at some point, Riza made a decision to dip her hands in buckets of the stuff.

Riza has a conscience, though. And she's dedicated her life to making sure Ishval never happens again and legitimate border conflicts won't escalate like Creta did.

"Dance lessons, huh," Winry says with slightly forced cheer. "We'll have to take you out and teach you how to swing dance, and if you're really that bad, I guess I can try and find you some lessons."

***

Around midnight Havoc signals that he's pulling off the road; Riza follows and they all convene between the cars with an assortment of emergency lanterns and a few makeshift torches Mustang lights with a casual snap. They take turns finding discreet bushes and Winry spends a few minutes running through her hunched-over-a-worktable-all-night stretches. Ed contorts himself ridiculously before he starts rummaging around for food.

"You're ridiculous," Winry informs him fondly, but she finds the ration bars Riza stashes in her trunk.

"I'm a growing boy," Ed says, then tears a wrapper open with his teeth.

"No, you're not," Winry says. "I haven't done a height adjustment in a year and a half and at this point, you're too old for a last minute surprise teenage growth spurt."

"Lies," Ed says around a mouthful of protein-dense...whatever they put in ration bars. Winry wrinkles her nose and wishes Ed would stop talking with a mouth full of food. Ed offers her one of the ration bars and Winry shakes her head; she's not that hungry. Havoc takes pity on her and tosses her one of the bags of leftover chips and a water bottle.

"So you think the boss is going to stay Funmetal sized?" Havoc asks her. "There's a coupla bets about whether the boss is going to get much taller than Fuery, and someone bet that the boss and the chief'll end up the same height, but the real question there is would the chief stop making short jokes then?"

Ed telegraphs a kick to Havoc so obviously that Winry's able to spot it. She interrupts Ed's bitching because all of them have heard it (and endless variations of it) before.

"Well, in my expert basically medical opinion, the only growing Ed's going to do now is out. As in those ration bars are supposed to be meal substitutes and you've eaten like three of them, Ed; where are you even putting that? I know your leg isn't hollow, and Al's been back for years, there's no way you're helping support his body too, so where are you putting it?"

Ed grins, and the firelight makes him look more demented than usual. "Well, I do have one of the best asses in Amestris, there was even a poll—"

"Ugh, shut up. I don't want to hear about your ass or how hot the idiots in Central think you are, you're like my little brother, that's just gross."

Someone clears their throat and Mustang interrupts. "As fascinating as this discussion of my asset's assets are—" Havoc makes a choking noise and Winry can practically hear Riza's eyeroll from over here.

"We do have a schedule to try and keep," Mustang continues smoothly. "We need to head out soon. I'm not anticipating any more stops, so perhaps we should work out who's riding where, as Fullmetal and Winry will need to be dropped off together."

"I'm a little closer to Ed's," Havoc says. "And his stuff is in this car, but the point still stands that you should ride with me just in case."

"I don't mind making an extra trip," Riza says calmly. "Or Winry's welcome to spend the night at my apartment and we'll sort everything out in the morning."

"Let's just do that," Winry says. "I'm due to drive anyway, so really, it's easier all around if I crash at Riza's."

Mustang nods, "All right then. We're about halfway home. I want everyone to get a good night's rest and we'll meet at the office after lunch. You too, Winry. I'll need a report on the car and your suspicions."

"Sure," Winry says. "Let's just get going; the sooner we leave the sooner we can all go to bed."

***

Winry loves driving. She loves anything with gloriously complicated engineering, but cars are a special kind of wonderful because she can race them down open roads and feel like she's flying away on an adventure.

Winry does not love driving in the middle of the night in a part of the country she's unfamiliar with. The central section of Amestris, right down until about a few hundred miles of the southern border, is full of weird trees and the wrong kind of hills; they're too sharp and rocky. And right now they're still far enough north that some of those hills are practically mountains, at least by Winry's standards.

"Black Hayate is the first pet I've ever had, I prefer tea over coffee, and I was fourteen when I had my first kiss."

"What?" Winry asks, pulled away from her silent rant about the stupid landscape and dark, twisting roads.

"Two truths and a lie," Riza says. "I believe it's traditional on a road trip."

"You didn't even know what it was a few hours ago and now you think it's traditional?"

"Well," Riza amends. "I believe it's traditional for _us_ when we're on a road trip."

Winry laughs, but it's nice to think about future trips with Riza and establishing traditions. "Okay, I think the tea thing in a lie, I know I've seen you drink coffee before—wait, I know it's a lie, you got coffee when we stopped for lunch and you totally could have had tea then!"

"I always forget how observant you are," Riza says ruefully. "I was hoping to trip you up with Black Hayate; surely you heard how I acquired him?"

"Yeah, Al told me, I guess it left an impression."

"Quite literally," Riza says dryly. "The bullet holes might finally be gone, but it was an effective way to train him. But yes, Black Hayate is my first pet, though I believe that Fuery is under the impression that I'd grown up with dogs and learned secret training techniques passed down for generations. Those first few months were an adventure."

"I bet," Winry says with a laugh. She concentrates on her driving for a few moments; they're starting to climb a very steep hill and if she's remembering the drive over clearly, this should be one of the last major hilly areas before they start descending in the valley that will eventually take them back to Central City. "I knew the tea thing and you told me about Hayate; want to tell me about that first kiss while you're at it?"

"It's not a very good story," Riza says. "Like I said, I was fourteen, he was a year or two older than me and we'd been friends for awhile. He kissed me unexpectedly, I punched him in the stomach and we never spoke of it again. Now, the first kiss that really counts? That's a pretty good story."

"You can't just say that and not follow through, c'mon."

"Well, since you're insisting," Riza says warmly. Winry takes her eye off the road and Havoc's tail lights just long enough to glance at Riza; her expression's surprisingly open, though Winry thinks Riza looks a little tense about something. It's hard to tell in the car's gloom.

"I was in my first term at the academy and I thought I was hopelessly in love with my roommate. We had a free weekend and ended up in one of the town's bars with some friends. Someone suggested a game of truth or dare; I got dared to kiss her and I seized the opportunity. It was a terrible kiss, she was fairly drunk and I'd barely kissed anyone before, but it was...enlightening in many ways."

"Wow, that sounds a lot like the first time I kissed a girl," Winry says without much thought; she's pretty sure Riza won't judge her for this. "I'd kissed a few boys by then and more or less knew what making out was, which was fun, because hormones and stuff, but the whole thing was very....intellectual, I guess? I wasn't super into it mostly, which is why kissing Paninya just wasn't a big deal to me. Mouths mashing together, kind of awkward. But she was curious and I didn't care, so. Kissing. And it turns out that what I needed to be doing was kissing girls, not idiot teenage boys."

"And you and Paninya?" Riza asks delicately.

"We made out a couple times, then she started crushing on a guy in town and whatever we had fizzled out. Right now she's happily dating that guy's sister and I think they're in the early stages of wooing Mr. Garfiel's adorable new apprentice."

"Well, I wish them the best of luck then," Riza says and she sounds kind of pleased about something. Winry's not entirely sure about what just yet. She'll try to remember to ask once she's through the hairpin turns ahead of them.

The road straightens out some and gets a little less terrifying; Winry unclenches her hands a little and takes a deep breath to relax. She hopes there won't be anything too exciting until they start making their way down the small mountain masquerading as a hill.

"So that was fun!" Winry says sarcastically. "Let's not do that next road trip, okay?"

"At least not in the middle of the night," Riza adds in. "I'll certainly plan a _much_ better route for us."

"Or we could take a train; all of the charm that comes with being trapped in a small space with someone for hours, none of the stress."

"It hasn't been all bad," Riza says quietly. "At least, I don't think so. We make excellent traveling companions."

"I guess," Winry says with a sigh. "I just wish we didn't have to spend all day playing white knight and rescuing the boys. Again."

"They're hopeless without us."

"At least they realize it. Anyway, I guess it's my turn for two truths and a lie?"

"It's only equivalent exchange," Riza says primly.

Winry exhales slowly, blowing her bangs out of her eyes and thinks about what she wants to tell Riza. She'd been incredibly open with Winry earlier and deserved to have the favor returned.

"Okay," Winry says slowly. "My longest relationship lasted almost five months, I seriously considered going to Central University to study medicine, _and_ I once asked Al to marry me.

"You did not ask Alphonse Elric to marry you," Riza says immediately and with palpable annoyance.

"I did too! When I was five. Ed pissed me off, and Al wanted to learn how to bake cookies with me so we could have them for dinner, it seemed like an awesome idea at the time."

"That would be a terrible reason to get married," Riza tells her and Winry rolls her eyes.

"No, I'm pretty sure cookies for dinner and spiting Ed are _great_ reasons to marry someone. Cookies. For dinner! All the time! What's not to love?"

"Your body wouldn't be very happy with you. Nor would your dentist."

"Why do you always have to be so reasonable and logical about things?"

"Because my life is full of ridiculous people and absurd situations," Riza says wryly. "Well, if you are telling the truth about proposing to Alphonse, I'm not sure what the lie is. I'd be somewhat surprised to hear you've only dated casually, but you're a very busy woman so it's understandable, and certainly, medical school would make a lot of sense for you."

"You'd think so," Winry starts to explain. "Med school would teach me a lot of stuff, but most of it's actually useless for automail surgery. It a weird way, it's easier to learn automail and _then_ go to med school, instead of the other way around. I might look into it later on, but I don't really need it. Granny and Mr. Garfiel trained me really well, and in terms helping people with ordinary injuries and illness, I'm pretty much on par with most fancy pants official doctors. Most people know that, and they don't care about what letters come after my name as long as I can help them."

"So it's more like being a medic than a doctor?" Riza asks.

"A lot like it, actually. Except I'm a medic who can perform complicated surgeries and knows a ton about the brain and nervous system. And, like, muscles and spine stuff."

"No wonder you date casually then; you can't have much time to yourself."

"I wouldn't say I date casually," Winry hedges, then sighs. She might as well talk about this with someone. "I'm not looking to get married or anything, but I would like something with the _potential_ to be serious. I'm not interested in just fucking around, even though practically everyone my age, that's all they want unless they're already married." Winry sighs again, twists her hands around the steering wheel and wishes she could safely look away and pretend she isn't baring her soul to Riza. Well, she's in for a penny, she might as well go in for the rest of the cenz.

"And I meet people who seem to want the same thing and it's great! But then they can't deal with my job or how much time I spend in Central or how crap I am at homemaking stuff. My apartment is always a disaster, and some weeks I practically live on take out, I just don't always have the time or energy to cook. And I can't...I can't be someone else's minder. I don't want to be. So. My relationships always implode."

Riza makes a sympathetic sound and Winry briefly looks over to send her a small smile. It really, honestly, isn't that bad. It would be nice to have someone special in her life, and certainly, she'd enjoy a more interesting sex life. But Winry can usually find someone to warm her bed when the mood strikes her, and she has her friends, her business, and wonderful customers who often become friends.

"It's never easy to balance a demanding career a personal life," Riza says softly. "I'm not going to lie and pretend it gets easier with time. Honestly, it's a crapshoot. I've had some good relationships, a lot more that fizzled out before they really became much of anything, and a few spectacular breakups. Both parties have to want similar things and be willing to work for them, but that's still no guarantee of domestic bliss."

"It just sucks, I don't think I'm asking for the sun and the moon here, and it's not like I wouldn't be there for my partner. But apparently," Winry says sardonically, "skipping out on trivia night and forgetting to make five month anniversary plans because I was working on my best friend's arm—the arm that he uses to save people as a State Alchemist, and, y'know, doing the thing that pays my bills, _that_ makes me a horrible girlfriend."

"I know you dislike the military, but you should really consider just dating soldiers from now on," Riza tells her. "They'll understand about duty and loyalty, which might help with some of your problems."

"Sure, and what about you?" Winry asks in a blatant attempt to turn the conversation off her and who she should date. Winry knows who she wants to date and it's not an option. "Sounds like you've had some problems dating, how do we solve those?"

Riza huffs in a way that suggests amusement or annoyance to Winry. "Well, I need to _stop_ dating soldiers, since my rank is starting to make things tricky, and my loyalty to Mustang and our political goals is too complicated or a liability or _something_. I didn't even get a decent justification last time, honestly, it would have rankled less if she'd just told me it's not me, it's you and left it at that."

Winry considers this carefully, then hesitantly says: "Okay, so _you_ need to date a civilian who either won't care about like, everything in your life or already knows a lot about it. And _I_ need to date a soldier who'll understand my dedication to my job and my friends, and, ideally, probably won't take issue with how close I am to some infamous alchemists and political reformers. And whoever either of us dates, they'll have to understand that last minute rescue missions and ridiculous stuff like today happens all the time."

"They'll also have to understand our road trip traditions," Riza says cautiously.

"We're doomed to be single forever!" Winry proclaims dramatically, and a small part of her tentatively hopes that Riza will correct her.

"That's one possibility," Riza agrees. "The other is that we could try dating?"

"That's the best idea I've heard all day," Winry says. "We should get dinner while I'm in town."

***

Winry has never been happier to see signs for Central City; today has been a very long, tiresome day in a series of long days full of long trips. She starts fantasizing about Riza's couch when they hit the outskirts of the city. Winry's spent some quality time with Riza's couch before, she's looking forward to renewing their acquaintance.

"Pillows," Winry murmurs dreamily, thinking about a nice, cool pillow cradling her head as she drifts off and oh, no alarm clock going off before 8 am!

"What was that?" Riza asks her from the driver's seat.

"I'm thinking about the quality time I'm going to spend with a pillow."

"Don't forget the blankets or they'll get jealous."

"I'm not sure I'm even going to pull your couch out. It's big enough that I can stretch my legs out some and then pass out forever."

"I'm looking forward to stretching out under my blankets," Riza says. "I suppose I'll have to share with Black Hayate so he doesn't bother you."

"Aww, I don't mind if he curls up with me!" Winry says. "He's really cute and he's smaller than Den, plus I'm a pretty heavy sleeper so I don't think he'd wake me up."

"You're a guest and I have plenty of space for one of you," Riza says. "I do have to insist on trying to keep Black Hayate from disturbing you; he can get very insistent about receiving attention and he likes to sneak under the blankets and lick your feet which is...not always the best way to wake up."

Winry laughs and insists, "No, really, I'll be fine. Don't interrupt poor Black Hayate's routine any more than it has been, just for me. At this point I can sleep anywhere under any circumstances."

Riza makes a noise of agreement and they drift off into silence again. Within twenty minutes, Winry starts to recognize landmarks and realizes that they're close to Riza's neighborhood. Riza lives in one of the historical neighborhoods: her apartment is on the third floor of an older, ornately designed home that was converted into apartments. Winry not-so-secretly loves Riza's apartment, the building is _beautiful_ ,and Riza has great taste in comfortable furniture. And generally, when Winry's at Riza's apartment, it has _Riza_ in it and that alone would make it a wonderful place to spend time in.

Black Hayate is a little ball of adorable energy and excitement when they walk in. Riza drops down to pet him and Winry joins her; she's missed having a dog around.

"Did you stay up just to say hi to us?" Winry asks him while she scratches his ears. Black Hayate lets out a quiet noise that's almost a bark and Winry laughs and pets him more.

"We probably woke him up," Riza says, standing. "Here, let me take him out for a walk, I'm sure it's been a few hours since Fuery came by. You're welcome to use the shower, spare towels are in the linen closet with the extra sheets and blankets."

Winry watches Riza clip Black Hayate's leash to his collar, then waves them off. As much as she wants to sleep, she feels gross from travel and if she showers now she can sleep in that much later in the morning. Winry finds spare towels and figures Riza won't care if she uses her shampoo and a lot of her conditioner. Riza's got long hair, she knows how it is.

Clean, and feeling a little more human (though just as exhausted; twelve hours on the road after an overnight train and discovering an assassination plot in the middle will do that to a girl), Winry realizes she doesn't have anything clean to change into. Well, Riza should be back quickly and she'll take pity on Winry and find something for her to borrow. Or she'll just let Winry fall asleep on her couch in a towel. It's not like Winry's going to freak out if Riza gets an eyefull.

Winry hears Riza talking to Black Hayate in the kitchen; she must have taken a little longer in the shower than she thought.

"All right, all right, settle down Hayate. I'm just going to check Win—"

Riza walks into the living room where Winry's standing next to the couch, probably looking a little pathetic with her wet hair and the dark circles under her eyes. Maybe not as pathetic as she thought, considering Riza's speechless.

"Can I borrow something to sleep in?" Winry asks hopefully.

"I—that is to say, um. You. Yes," Riza manages. "Yes, I have some pajamas you can borrow, if you'd like." Winry raises an eyebrow and Riza flushes prettily once she realizes what she said and how it could be interpreted.

"Look, in my defense you're basically naked in my living room," Riza says. "It's distracting."

"So I should definitely put some clothes on then," Winry says with a small smirk and a hip tilt.

"Well…" Riza teases, "that's really up to you, I want you to feel comfortable and if you're more comfortable in just a towel—no, I'm sorry, I can't finish that statement, I'm not sure where I was going."

"Some other time," Winry says with a softer smile. "Raincheck, even. I'd be happy to hang out in your living room mostly naked, but right now I'm _exhausted_ and I really just want to go to bed."

"Let's find you something to change into then," Riza says and leads her towards the bedroom. Winry's been in her room before, but never for very long. Riza's bedroom is simple like the rest of her home, but she has bright prints on the walls and a colorful blanket on the bed. Winry can see part of a uniform peeking out from Riza's laundry hamper and one of Black Hayate's toys is in the middle of the floor; it's a lived in room and Winry likes it a lot.

"Here," Riza hands her a pajama set. "You can change in here, I want to take a quick shower."

"Thanks," Winry says, taking the soft cotton. "Are there spare pillows somewhere or should I grab one from your bed?"

"You can just grab my bed if you want," Riza offers. "It's big enough to share comfortably." Winry looks at Riza, surprised. Riza smiles tiredly and shrugs. All right then.

"Okay," Winry says a little shyly. "I'll probably be asleep anyways."

"I don't mind," Riza says fondly. "I'll try not to disturb you too much."

"I'll adjust," Winry says, walking towards the other side of the bed, where there's no alarm clock on the night stand. 'We'll make it work." And she's not just talking about sharing a bed. She doesn't think Riza is either; she waves Riza towards the bathroom. "Go shower so we can figure this sleeping thing out."

Winry's mostly asleep when Riza returns; she had left the light on so Riza could easily find her way, and Riza does her best to step quietly and slide into bed without bothering Winry. Riza's stiff as a board next to her and Winry won't have that; she turns and snuggles into Riza's side.

"Bedtime," she says against Riza's ear. "We'll figure everything else out tomorrow, okay? Right now it's you, me, your really comfy bed, and hours until we have to do anything except sleep."

Riza makes a contented sound and reaches to turn off her bedside light; Winry wraps an arm around her waist and they take take a few minutes to just breathe and rest together. Finally, Riza relaxes completely and settles next to Winry; she smiles into Riza's shoulder and lets herself drift off.


End file.
